Updates, advisories and surprises

(7:21 PM ET) LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Chinese firms are positioning themselves to take advantage of next month's World Cup soccer tournament in South Africa, grabbing sponsorship deals and, in some cases, using that as a springboard for longer term deals, according to a report Friday. The Nikkei business daily report cited deals including Harbin Beer Co.'s becoming an official supplier to the World Cup, and Gree Electric Appliances Inc.'s(CN:000651)supplying air-conditioning systems for tournament facilities. In some cases, involvement in the World Cup is serving longer-terms goals, the report said, such as U.S.-listed Yingil Green Energy Holding Co.
YGE, +1.21%
which is a tournament sponsor but is also planning to set up permanent sales offices in Johannesburg and elsewhere in the country.

Blockbuster swings to quarterly loss of $65.4 mln

(4:30 PM ET) SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Blockbuster Inc.
BBI, -3.75%
late Thursday reported it swung to a loss of $65.4 million, or 33 cents a share, from a net income of $27.7 million, or 13 cents a share, in the same quarter a year earlier. Excluding costs associated with store closures and recapitalization initiatives, the video rental chain would have lost 14 cents a share. Revenue slumped to $939.4 million from $1.09 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast Blockbuster to hand in a loss of 12 cents on revenue of $952.5 million. "We expect the next 12 to 18 months will remain challenging. For the full year of 2010, we remain focused on the following financial initiatives: lowering our debt service costs; aggressively reducing operating expenses; preserving liquidity through operational efficiencies; and focusing on improving top line performance," said Chief Financial Officer Tom Casey in a statement.

Nordstrom profit up 44% on same-store sales gains

(4:11 PM ET) SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Nordstrom Inc.
JWN, +0.08%
on Thursday reported a first-quarter profit of $116 million, or 52 cents a share, up from $81 million, or 37 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts polled by FactSet Research were looking for a profit, on average, of 54 cents a share on sales of $1.99 billion. Same-store sales for the high-end retailer grew 12% compared with the first quarter in 2009. Nordstrom raised its outlook for the year to $2.50 to $2.65 a share from $2.35 to 2.55 a share. Wall Street previously forecast earnings of $2.62 for the year.

(8:14 AM ET) NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Wendy's/Arby's
WEN, +0.35%
said Wednesday that it lost $3.4 million, or 1 cent a share, in the first quarter. In the same quarter last year it lost 11 million, or two cents a share. Sales fell to $837 million from $864 million. Analysts polled by FactSet research estimated earnings of a penny.

Urban Outfitters profit up 72%

(6:19 AM ET) LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Retailer Urban Outfitters Inc.
URBN, -0.50%
said Thursday that its first-quarter net profit rose 72% to $53 million, or 31 cents a share, from $30.8 million, or 18 cents a share, a year earlier. Net sales for the quarter rose 25% to $480 million, with comparable sales across the group's retail segment up 16%. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected earnings of 30 cents a share. The group said the strongest growth in overall sales were seen at its Anthropologie stores and in its direct-to-consumer business. It added that gross profit margins improved by around 4.6 percentage points, helped by lower markdown rates and better initial merchandising margins.

Elbit Systems 1st-quarter net up 15%, revenue off

(3:52 AM ET) TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Elbit Systems Ltd.
ESLT, -0.77%
the Haifa, Israel, defense contractor, on Thursday reported first-quarter net income up 15% on 5.9% lower revenue. Profit reached $49.8 million, or $1.15 a share, from $43.3 million, or $1.02, in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue fell to $618.2 million from $656.9 million, stemming mainly from delayed orders and fewer short-term projects in the land-vehicle-systems and command-and-control businesses. Gross-profit margin narrowed to 29.9% of revenue from 31.7% in the year-earlier quarter, hurt partly by the stronger dollar against the Israeli shekel. The backlog at March 31 was $5.25 billion, up 4% from December 31. About 68% of the current backlog is set to be done in the rest of 2010 and in 2011.

Allied Irish: margins pressured, M&T strong

(3:08 AM ET) TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Allied Irish Banks,
AIB, +0.00%
(UK:ALBK)the Dublin banking firm, said that so far in 2010, trading conditions have been "challenging, particularly in Ireland," where "[customer] demand for credit is weak." The net interest margin has been pressured by higher costs of funds, more interest payments after the company made two capital exchanges in the past year, and other factors, Allied Irish said. Trading has "improved in Great Britain and our capital-markets and Polish businesses are performing well," the company said. Results at M&T in the U.S. were strong in the first quarter, Allied Irish said. Overall, bad-debt charges in the first quarter "were at a rate similar to that" of full-year 2009, the bank said. At the end of April "overall loan and deposit volumes were both broadly unchanged" from December 2009, Allied Irish said. And the company said it would pay a dividend due on state-owned preference stock in shares, raising the government's stake to 18.61%. Withal, Allied Irish said it is carefully controlling costs.

3i group returns to profit, cuts debt

(2:59 AM ET) LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. private equity firm 3i Group(UK:III)said Thursday that it swung to a net profit for the fiscal year ended March 31 of 154 million pounds ($228 million) from a loss of 1.95 billion pounds a year earlier. The group said its total return for the period was 407 million pounds, representing a return on shareholders' funds of 16.2%, compared to a loss of 2.15 billion pounds a year earlier. Total assets under management fell to 9.63 billion pounds from 10.78 billion pounds and net debt also fell sharply to 258 million pounds from 1.91 billion pounds. "I am confident we will see some outstanding opportunities in the next three years and believe we are now well placed, with a focused business model, good liquidity and a strong balance sheet to invest in and build some great businesses," said CEO Michael Queen.

Old Mutual sales rise 29%

(2:45 AM ET) LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. insurance and investments group Old Mutual(UK:OML)said Thursday that its first-quarter sales on an annual premium equivalent basis rose 29% to 397 million pounds ($586 million). The increase was driven by a 62% rise in wealth management sales, which was partly offset by a 17% drop in Nordic sales. The company said funds under management were up 8% to 309 billion pounds. The sales result was in line with the consensus forecast of analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires. "The U.K. performance is particularly pleasing, reinforcing our confidence in the position of our Skandia platform model and its prospects for capturing funds," said CEO Julian Roberts.

Tullett Prebon acquisition talks have ended

(2:39 AM ET) LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Broker Tullett Prebon(UK:TLPR)said Thursday that talks with a potential buyer have ended without an offer being made. The company said discussions with the third party had been "constructive" but it had not been possible to reach an agreement on terms. The announcement came as the broker said revenue in the first four months of the year fell 12% to 312 million pounds ($461 million). The company said the underlying revenue run rate was down 3% compared to the exceptionally volatile markets seen in the first half of 2009. It added that the departure of a group of employees in North America to rival BGC had contributed 6% of the revenue decline.

Telefonica 1st-period net up 2%, revenue up 1.7%

(2:30 AM ET) TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Telefonica,
TEF, -0.80%
(ES:TEF)the Madrid telecom-services giant, reported first-quarter earnings rose 2% to 1.66 billion euros ($2.11 billion). Revenue advanced 1.7% to €13.93 billion. The company affirmed its earnings estimates for 2010 and all its targets, including dividends, through 2012. At March 31, the company had 273 million access lines, up 4.6% from a year earlier. Churn, a measure of customers moving to other providers, fell 0.1 percentage point in the quarter to 2.2%.

Thomas Cook loss narrows on lower finance charges

(2:25 AM ET) LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. holiday company Thomas Cook Group(UK:TCG)said Thursday that its net loss for the six months ended March 31 narrowed to 211.8 million pounds ($312.9 million) from 226.8 million pounds a year earlier, due to lower one-off costs and financing charges. The group said revenue for the period slipped 5% to 3.31 billion pounds due to planned capacity cuts. The fiscal first-half underlying loss from operations rose to 130 million pounds from 113 million pounds due to both the reduced capacity and the impact of a weaker British pound on flying and accommodation costs. Thomas Cook estimated that the cost of the disruption in April caused by the volcanic ash cloud over Europe was around 70 million pounds.

Intraday Data provided by SIX Financial Information and subject to terms of use. Historical and current end-of-day data provided by SIX Financial Information. All quotes are in local exchange time. Real-time last sale data for U.S. stock quotes reflect trades reported through Nasdaq only. Intraday data delayed at least 15 minutes or per exchange requirements.